COUNTDOWN DAY 6 : THE SWING

THE YAAN : So, 25 years ago on this day I had two sick little children going into hospital for ear surgery. I had a heroin habit, alcohol addiction , pills and other chemical dependencies and I was stark, raving mad. I lived out in the Valleys in a collapsing marriage with violence and savagery all about.

Today, I was setting up a swing made from an old tyre that we gathered up on the weekend Council Cleanup day. I live in a peaceful and safe environment. In my side yard, is the frame of an old swing set. It’s stood there for the two years that I have lived here. Stood there without anything to swing on. Now I have the tyre ready for my grand daughter tomorrow. I like the old green frame because it looks like AA to me. I can see it from all my side windows.

25 years ago, I took a train from Urunga Railway station. On my 9th wedding anniversary. Left my kids and family and everything I had ever known and went South on a promise from the baddest man I had ever known that he would ‘ lead me by my little hand to safety’. And he did.

Today, I was in Urunga at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting of four women. All mothers. All drug free.

If the swing were just a little bigger – well, if it were a lot bigger, I would sit on it and lie back and swing and smile Lucky woman, eh?

‎"Sometimes we need to place love ahead of indiscriminate `factual honesty'. We cannot, under the guise of `perfect honesty', cruelly and unnecessarily hurt others. Always one must ask, `What is the best and most loving thing I can do?' LETTER, 1966. W.W.

MY THANKS TO YOU.

I am very erratic in replying to your comments and likes but I most surely do appreciate them. My thanks to you all. Take a look at the bottom of the post for a polyglot of links, info and social media sites. That's where you will find some of my favourite bloggers from here in Australia and from far flung parts of the world. Sit down. Let's Yaan.